industrial lord

Chapter 6 Cheap Steel
"Aren't you kidding me? You can get steel here?!"

Ogilvy looked at the hot molten steel in the crucible in front of him, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

At present, the height of an ordinary ironmaking furnace is as high as one person, and the diameter is about one meter. The quality and yield of iron have been greatly improved.

Ogilvy believes that he has followed the forefront of the times and has studied various smelting techniques, but he was still stunned when he saw the steel frying process. Could it be that steel can be cooked like batter?

"Who thought of it?" He asked excitedly, "Can it really be turned into steel directly?!"

Frederick handed him a large roll of parchment and said at the same time: "This is what the wandering scholar told me. He said that the difference between wrought iron, steel and pig iron is caused by the different carbon content, which can be obtained by sparks. Determine the carbon content in molten iron."

After his father went to war last year, his mother prayed in the church all day long, and the unattended children ran around and came to the blacksmith shop to do things.

Anyway, as soon as someone asks about it, they say it was a wandering scholar I met before, believe it or not.

Frederick winked at the blacksmith Alfred who was stirring the molten iron. The latter picked out a little molten iron and dropped it on the stone slab next to him. The molten iron blasted several fireballs the size of ping-pong balls.

These fireballs are composed of sparks divided into two, four in two, and eight in four, and they bounce a few times when they fall on the ground.

Ogilvy found the content of "Steel Flower Estimation Carbon" from the parchment, and immediately said: "Quickly, add some rust to it!"

Frederick nodded, and Alfred immediately used a spoon to scoop up a little rust from a wooden bucket on the side and poured it in. At the same time, he asked his son who was helping him to open the air valve on the air pipe connected to the bellows to the maximum.

The lower the carbon content of molten steel, the higher the melting point. In order to obtain carbon-free wrought iron, the furnace temperature must be increased, otherwise it will solidify.

This is one of the reasons why the steel frying method has not appeared at present. The melting point of pig iron is about 300°C lower than that of wrought iron. Blacksmiths have not grasped the principle, so they will not waste fuel to increase the furnace temperature.

It’s different here in Frederick. Just preheating the air in the bellows before entering the ironmaking furnace can increase the furnace temperature by about 200°C.

After stirring for a while, Alfred's son scooped up the scum, and Alfred made another drop of molten steel onto the stone slab.

"It's really getting smaller!" Ogilvy exclaimed, "It's a pity that the crucible is a little smaller."

The current crucible has a diameter of just over 20 centimeters and a similar depth.

Frederick also said helplessly: "No way, the material of the crucible is too big and too heavy to be lifted, and it will break. We have to stop the furnace and let the steel harden before moving it away."

"There was an accident before. Fortunately, it fell into the furnace, otherwise it would have killed someone."

Ogilvy thought for a while and said, "I have a way. At that time, I will use heat-resistant fire steel to make a crucible shell the size of a water tank, and put a layer of crucible material on the inside. I can do a lot at a time."

"We can even purchase pig iron and process it into steel ingots to sell. I'm afraid the blacksmiths will hate us by then."

After hearing this, Frederick pointed to the place near the end under the parchment and said, "You can take a look here."

Ogilvy looked over immediately, and his expression became particularly dignified after seeing the converter steelmaking method.

"It's a pity." He said after reading, "The wind pressure of the bellows can't meet the requirements."

Frederick nodded.

The theory of indigenous ironmaking and indigenous converter steelmaking is not a problem for him. When he visited Station A in his previous life, a UP owner named "1.9 meters and five people with virtue" shared a doomsday survival folder. There are various indigenous crafts, including but not limited to iron and steel making, bearing machine tools, canning salted fish, hatching eggs to treat pig diseases, and so on.

It is one thing to have a theory, but another to practice it in practice. The crucible material problem almost made him belch again.

The same is true for the converter. Although the indigenous converter can be produced, the blower has no shadow at present. If the wind pressure is not enough, the molten iron will block the air outlet or even flow backwards.

Ogilvy watched the molten iron being poured into the mold, and waited for the iron ingot to cool while studying the content on the parchment. Only then did he believe that the "batter stirring method" could quickly produce wrought iron and steel.

Holding a piece of wrought iron ingot, he pondered and said, "Wrought iron is relatively soft, so it's easy to process, but when it's used to make bearings, its hardness is much worse than steel. In the end, do we still need to paste it and bake it?"

"Since the different properties of iron and steel are due to the difference in the amount of carbon, then wrought iron becomes steel because the carbon in the coated carbon paste enters the iron at high temperature."

Frederick nodded. The "pasting and sintering" he said is the carburizing process. "Carbon paste" is made of charcoal powder, grease and other things, and then coated with high-temperature resistant clay One kind of thing is wrapped up and put on the fire to heat, a bit like beggar's chicken.

"Usually quenching and tempering follow," adds Friedrich.

Ogilvy thought about it and said: "The magic strengthening step can be done before quenching. The material is no problem. Next, we can discuss the specification."

Frederick thought for a while and said, "I suggest first using bearings on the waterwheels and lathes in the workshop, first to practice hands, and second, to sharpen axes so that woodcutters are not mistaken."

Ogilvy said: "It works."

The two left the blacksmith's shop and walked towards the carpenter's shop not far away.

At present, the tools are limited, so we can only run on both sides.

It was already afternoon tea time, and the weather was fine. In the wheat field not far away, farmers used pull-horse plows to turn the straw and stubble into the field, and then sprinkled it with diluted compost.

The microbes in this world are very powerful. Now that the temperature is high in summer, the microbes in the compost can quickly degrade part of the straw and root stubble, so there is no delay in planting beans later. After the beans are harvested in late autumn, the land will be planted with grass next year.

Frederick looked at the farmland and said: "Recently, I got a little inspiration and am designing a machine powered by magic crystals that can plow the fields quickly."

Ogilvy said with a wry smile: "Actually, I have also considered using golem puppets to plow the fields, but the magic crystal is too expensive and the cost is too high."

Frederick smiled and said, "Your understanding of golem puppets is too one-sided. In fact, it has a wide range of uses."

"You can teach the control core to count, then make a golem puppet specially used to calculate numbers, and don't stick to the human form."

"For example, keys are used to input numbers, and rings driven by rotating gears are used to display numbers."

"A machine that only needs to input numbers without calculation errors. I think many merchants will like it."

"Also, in fact, many processes in making bearings are repetitive labor, especially on machine tools."

"If you can make a golem puppet that specializes in these processes, the production efficiency will be much higher."

"I'll just say one thing, the axle, can there be such a golem puppet that can make the rough embryos put on it into a suitable size for the car?"

Ogilvy was stunned when he heard it. At first, he just thought that the kid was whimsical, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to make sense.

"Let's make the bearing first." Ogilvy said, "Only when you have money can you study new golem puppets."

Frederick nodded. There is no rush for this matter. If we want to build an automatic machine tool, we must at least solve the power problem, which requires the steam engine to come out.

At this time, he didn't know that, next, because of his own negligence, he almost failed to get the bearing out.

(End of this chapter)